Former BlackRock Fund Manager Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

LONDON — A former fund manager at BlackRock pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in a London court on Wednesday, the British authorities said.

The fund manager, Mark Lyttleton, 45, who oversaw the BlackRock UK Dynamic and BlackRock UK Absolute Alpha portfolios before he left the firm in March 2013, entered a guilty plea on two counts of insider dealing, the equivalent of insider trading in Britain, at Southwark Crown Court.

Insider dealing convictions carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. Mr. Lyttleton is to be sentenced on Dec. 21.

The Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates British financial services, said Mr. Lyttleton had admitted to making trades based on insider information that he had obtained while employed at BlackRock, either while working on deals or in being party to conversations with colleagues.

The activity for which he faces charges occurred from Oct. 1 to Dec. 17, 2011, and involved stocks in EnCore Oil and Cairn Energy, the regulator said.

It said Mr. Lyttleton had conducted his trades through an overseas asset manager trading on behalf of a company registered in Panama.

A lawyer for Mr. Lyttleton did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Mr. Lyttleton was arrested in April 2013 in connection with an insider trading inquiry, but his identity was not publicly released at the time and he was not immediately charged.

The Financial Conduct Authority said at the time that two people had been questioned about insider trading and market abuse, and that several homes and offices had been searched in Switzerland in connection with the inquiry.

BlackRock, which manages about $5 trillion in assets, said at the time that it had been informed by the Financial Conduct Authority of charges against a former employee related “to alleged actions carried out in 2011 for his personal gain, while off our premises, and that neither BlackRock, nor any employee, was under investigation.”

“There was no impact to any of BlackRock’s clients as a result of the alleged actions,” the company added at the time. “The alleged behavior is totally contrary to the firm’s principles and values, and we strongly support aggressive enforcement of the law in these matters.”